If preliminary results from today’s Jersey City school board race stand, Mayor Steve Fulop will have as many as eight allies on the nine-member board.

And that, Fulop said tonight, is exciting news.

Fulop has backed every successful candidate in the last three school board races, though a few of those candidates -- Angel Valentin, a winner tonight, and Sterling Waterman come to mind -- have later disavowed the mayor.

When the new board is seated in January, two of the most vocal critics of Schools Superintendent Marcia V. Lyles will be gone and replaced by strong supporters.

Fulop was instrumental in helping lure Lyles to Jersey City last year from Delaware's largest school district.

“I think that this will make life easier for the superintendent,” Fulop said. “The goal hopefully is to improve standards.”

And with Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono’s loss in the governor’s race tonight, the Democratic field for the 2017 gubernatorial election is wide open. Asked whether he’s interested, Fulop smiled.

“That’s for you guys to talk about,” he said, referring to The Jersey Journal.